Issue 8, Summer, 2014 Fowl Feathered Review is published quarterly by Fowl Pox Press. Please send all comments, questions, and submissions to: [email protected] Editor: Virgil Kay ISSN: 1929-7238 Produced in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada Follow us online: http://fowlpox.tk/ THE VIOLA ORGANISTA Sławomir Zubrzycki describes this unique instrument, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch and drawings and built in Krakow, Poland in 2009-2012 viola da gamba. None of Haiden’s instruments The Viola organista was designed more than 500 survived to our time. years ago by Leonardo da Vinci, but never built in his lifetime. The sketch and drawings, described with The only surviving instrument was made in 1625, Leonardo’s characteristic mirror writing, are on the model of Haiden’s viola, by a Spanish included in the Codex Atlanticus, the largest set of craftsman, Fray Raymundo Truchado in Toledo. It his notes from the years 1489-1492, comprising is preserved in the Musical Instrument Museum in over a thousand pages. The Codex is currently Brussels. stored in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. It also contains drawings of prototypes of siege There was another instrument that inspired me; engines, a submarine, a hang-glider and an called a “claviolin” or “hunched piano”. It was built automobile. Leonardo’s design is an outline of a by Father Jan Jarmusiewicz – an unconventional construction concept for a bowed string figure, a music theorist and member of musical instrument which at the same time is a keyboard societies in Lviv and Vienna. His instrument hasn’t instrument. That’s not a technical drawing. It survived – only its short description remained in does not contain all the necessary information but more than enough to understand the concept of the Kurier Warszawski newspaper. this instrument. The fact that the viola organista was rejected and forgotten, but every now and then someone returned to it, and then it fell into oblivion again, The instrument called "Geigenwerk" --built in was extremely motivating for me. 1575 and another version in 1600 by German constructor Hans Haiden-- is the first known instrument based on da Vinci's design. A In my reconstruction work, I followed three description of Haiden’s instrument, with its sound clues. The first was an idea about its sound; the characteristics and musical properties,d is second – an idea about the potential repertoire, which would have to be almost completely contained in Syntagma Musicum by Michael recreated. Only then could I think about the Praetorius, published in 1618. The instrument structure of the instrument. On the basis of the promised to be a revelation; it was universal, photos and descriptions, I decided that I would combining the best features of various types of apply the harpsichord form, that is a wing form (as instruments; it produced a continuous sound like there were table-type instruments, such as an organ, it had the sound of bowed string virginals or clavichords in a rectangular shape, and instruments, and you could play vibrato on it. It there were wing formed ones, such as the modern grand piano or harpsichord, where you open a top was a unique synthesis of harpsichord, positive board which is in the shape of a wing). organ and bowed string instruments, especially It was obvious to me that the instrument had to us in its original tone for a long time. It is only look like Haiden’s instrument. All of those built thanks to Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Wieland later had the appearance of either a harpsichord or Kuijken, and above all Jordi Savall, that we began a grand piano, hence the name “bowed string to delight in the subtlety of this instrument’s piano”. sounds. Another interesting area of repertoire is the music of the Italian Renaissance, represented I thought that the sound had to be similar to the by Orlando di Lasso and Vincenzo Galilei (father viola da gamba, but that it could also enter the of Galileo Galilei). range of the organ or wind instruments’ tone slightly. I used metal strings: I gave up on gut strings, as did many of the other builders in the early stages of the development of this instrument. An interesting topic moved in February 2014 year It is impossible to control 61 gut strings during a by Wolfgang Kostujak of DeutschlandRadio concert – with changing humidity, this instrument Kultur concerns the fate of the first instrument goes out of tune fast, whereas you can relatively built by Hans Heiden in Nuremberg. That quickly tune the seven strings of the viola da instrument was sent to Munich in the hands of the gamba. bandmaster of the local orchestra, which proved to be Orlando di Lasso. Another composer and music theorist, Da Vinci's countryman, had the opportunity to play an instrument in Munich, and There are three important topics that should be it was none other than Vincenzo Galilei. considered the most valuable in the search for repertoire for the viola organista. In the first place it should be the only one piece originally When deciding upon the name, one could draw written by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the son of from such ones as Bogenclavier, Geigenwerk, Johann Sebastian. We know that he composed for claviolin, hunched piano, bowed string piano and the instrument known in Prussia as the Bogeclavier others. I often wondered what name I would use. (bowed string piano), which was built in 1753 by I thought about the bowed string piano for a Johann Hohlfeld. Bach’s son composed the Sonata while, but when I finally started to play it, I in G major H 280, after he had met Hohlfeld at decided that “viola organista”, the name coined by the Prussian court. He familiarised himself with Leonardo da Vinci, is the most appropriate of all. Hohlfeld’s instrument and described it in his It perfectly characterises the instrument’s sound. treatise on keyboard instruments, expressing his regret that this instrument was so uncommon. Speaking in more detail about the characteristics of this sound, the viola da gamba appears very clearly Of additional note is music of XVII and XVIII in the low and middle registers, whereas in the century, composed for a viol (da gamba) consort. upper register you can find some elements of a The great French masters of the viola da gamba - small positive organ. Also, depending on the Monsieur de Saint Colombe, Marin Marais, and texture and playing technique, there are either the German - Carl Friedrich Abel created music some features of strings, or of the organ. full of moving expression, sensual and often at the same time entering into areas of mysticism. Such compositions as Tombeau Les Regrets, Les Voix Playing the viola organista requires a bowed string humaines, are the best example of that. Music thinking in bowed string categories. written for the viola da gamba was unavailable to Fortunately, I came across the compositions of I have followed this path: I adapted the Antoine Forqueray and their harpsichord harpsichord arrangement for my viola organista, as arrangements by his son, Jean Baptiste Antoine if recreating what the father wrote. It’s a bit of a Forqueray. This discovery seems to me to be historical joke. The son adapted his father’s pieces crucial for the creation of the repertoire, because for the harpsichord, and then I converted them here we are dealing with a father who wrote for back to make them sound, I hope, very similar to the viola da gamba, and his son, who arranged his the original. These arrangements do not require father’s music on the harpsichord, fashionable in many changes to transpose them for the viola Paris at the time. Because the son did it, I believe organista. The problem is the playing technique, this is the most reliable transposition. which in fact has to be recreated from scratch. http://www.zubrzycki.art.pl from Of isolated limning Felino A. Soriano relating now to the now of prior mimesis explains reuniting considerations and expands condolences (first, inward) to the laude of disbelief, unbelieving alphabetic prophecies inclusive of the range this moment’s angles’ reincarnated intuition Saturday this surveillance versions, varied, vacant some though, apparent, still these crows contain mirrored functionality, left-handed angles their slanting serenades the eyed preferential satisfaction with momentum’s boomerang interrelation landing toward silence and the unobstructed fathoms of discerning visibility toward an alternative singularity motion momentum isolated watcher this symmetry of noon and heated architectural hour transforms ceiling exposure desolation performing nuanced dedication, formed from an experimental construct misused in the melody of delusion’s favorite appearance when music ascertains movement this ability encompasses corporeal foundations: of word mimesis echo beholden logic virtue specialized vocabulary, unheard: the ruminative alteration of sound involves involuntary happiness as halved enjoyment of now’s later visitation, condensed from Espials 54 turn in g in:to ward clarity as does autumn’s vocal ex pans e delegating color as sign them emblem of praise this softness of curve volunteers pace: breathe or pretend beneath a parallel of beautiful lines outlining what the hand holds as scent or scenery of greens near where prose hides between lips of oak’s gnarled enunciation 55 ceremony containing rain and running horizontal structures wetting waiting watchers walk into the crawl of causational pausing, splaying eyes into directional differences intercepting tone and tonetone renditions of altered perceptual intuition 56 of mirrors, these symptoms